I’ve never played a survival game before because it hasn’t really seemed like my thing. I have to admit though, this sounds pretty interesting. Trying to decide if I want to grab it before the end of the Steam sale.

Conan can be a lot of fun, but I wouldn't really recommend it as a pure solo game. I mean it's ok solo, but nothing special. Basically (almost literally) a sandbox. Solo on a multiplayer server is better as there is chatter (not always a positive) and a bigger random factor (not always a positive). On Fret's server, other than my son, I have only actually seen Fret in the world. We worked together a bit to test out purges, but otherwise we are all doing our own thing exploring and building. I think I miss the tension from potential PvP raids. I was never raided in all the time I played on public PvP servers and there was a quite a bit of that time, but I was quiet and kept my head down so didn't draw much attention. The people that could really do harm to me wouldn't get much value out of raiding me.

If you are really looking for your first survival game I would totally recommend Subnautica. It is single player, has a beginning middle and end to give you story and purpose and it's in pretty good shape from a stability standpoint. Conan is... not. I mean yeah, the server generally stays up, but lost corpses and graphics glitches and mad pop-in are ever present.

My Conan counter sits at 232 hours. I think I've played it for maybe three of those.

253 here and I think I've played it for maybe 253 of those.

Jeezus.

It's kind of funny. I asked Fret to add the compass mod and it really is a great mod, but I realized I pretty much never look at it because I know the map way too well.

The boy and I finally started our "real" base yesterday. I think I made around 800 sandstone foundations just to flatten out the (~15x20) area we are building in. The externally visible pieces have all been swapped to Black Ice. We built up the outer wall up to gateway height, so around 300 Black Ice walls and then alternated spiked black ice fences and crenelations all the way around. We're just about done filling the crenelations with archers shooting snake arrows, mostly with recruits from the volcano. Yeah, I just put a wheel of pain inside the volcano and am breaking thralls there. Yes, Fret or some other brave soul could take them (I think?), but they are super easy to get and they break fast.

With the outer wall done, we just started the inner structures. I am trying to give this more thought than my previous attempts, but I am just not that creative. I'm going to try to take my time and make it somewhat visually appealing rather than the big black boxes we had on our previous server. There is just so much to cram in there.

Do thralls use ammo, or do you just give them one snake arrow and they just magically use them forever?

Drop a snake arrow (or hardened steel or star metal or whatever you prefer) on the bow in their inventory so it shows the arrow in the bow thumbnail, then equip the bow to their main hand. No need to give them any actual arrows.

An another note, we got purged again overnight (Event List in the escape menu which I check periodically out of habit). I didn't have time to check this morning to see where we were hit. I destroyed our DWEST outpost and the starter base, and the damage was to sandstone pieces so it had to be either the Black Galleon base which had a number of melee thralls and one archer defending or Spartan Wolf's satellite base next to our new main base which had no defenses. Neither had anything of actual value so no sweat either way, but at least it seems purges are happening.

My last session was a total trainwreck, mostly because my kids were watching and distracting me.

I won't go into details, but my naked corpse is lying against the wall to the north as I vainly tried to figure out a way through it to get to the rest of the OO clan. I made most of the run bare-assed, dodging rhinos and hyenas and screaming in terror.

There are a few ways to get through the wall, but most of them are on the western half of the map and some of them are scary. The Den is full of were-hyenas, but there is a crack in the wall just west of the Den. There are a few easy paths through north of Sepermeru, but you would be on the wrong side of the map. On the east end of the wall, north of the Black Galleon we have an elevator that can take you up. Finally, there is a cave that runs through kind of in the middle between The Den and the Black Galleon. It's next to the one huge statue that is sliced in half. Don't ask me how it got that way. I really don't want to know.

Try this in the chat window next time: "/teleport Kyra Frostheart"

I would have suggested that yesterday, but we were in an end game dungeon that would have been the end of you if you joined us.

I wouldn't necessarily say there is an OO clan either. I just have my son in my clan, but have offered to help and include anyone that is interested. I think everyone else is running solo. Fret has a clan, but I think it is just him. I think he is settling down in the jungle which is another pretty rough place.

If you do make it through, check a map online and look for Freya's Hovel. Not Dead Yet is conveniently (so so not convenient) situated right behind/above her place.

Once you train a thrall can someone else take them and make them their thrall?

There are two basic types of thralls, crafter thralls which are placed at workstations and enhance the capabilities of the workstation and combat thralls that are used primarily for base defense. Combat thralls can be killed and their equipment taken from their bodies, but the thralls themselves can't be taken. Crafter thralls can be stolen right off the workbench and used by their new owner right away. The same goes for any thrall that is in storage (yes, I put my extra thralls in a box), they can be stolen and used by the person that steals them.

On a PvE server like Fret is hosting, the combat thralls can only be killed by NPCs, but I *think* thralls could still be taken from workstations if you could get to them. Since you can't destroy doors or walls, they would have to be in the open to have that chance, like my wheel of pain in the open in the volcano.

Technically next month's Humble Bundle and since it's the early unlock you could get it now for that price (or at least I can, so I assume anyone else can). You might want to wait and see if the emergency fix they are doing today is any good because they broke the game yesterday.

PC Exiles: A quick heads-up.
Unfortunately we have to delay the hotfix that was planned for today until tomorrow. Waiting is frustrating and we apologize for the hiccup. On the positive side: You will get 2 for 1!

- Got stuck on the terrain twice and couldn’t move, once during combat.
- Can’t for the life of me figure out how to equip and use a weapon. I crafted a sword and it shows up in that radial menu, but when I try to select it...nothing. Every time combat starts, I can only use my fists. I tried mapping a button to the “wield”command, but that didn’t seem to do anything either. Spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure that out and still came up empty.
- Seems like every time I go into the menus to try and actually figure out what the hell I’m doing, I get attacked. Even when I didn’t seem to be anywhere near any mobs.
- I’ve got a decent new mid-range system, and the game still kinda looks and runs like shit on the High setting.

I typically like a story-rich, structured game with specific things to do. I knew going in that this wasn’t that at all, but sometimes new genres scratch gaming itches I didn’t even know I had. I had never played a space exploration game, but spent tons of time with Elite Dangerous, for example. Was hoping to catch that same lightning in a bottle, but I just came away with very little interest to keep trying to figure it all out.

Will probably give it another shot tomorrow...maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood tonight.

- Can’t for the life of me figure out how to equip and use a weapon. I crafted a sword and it shows up in that radial menu, but when I try to select it...nothing. Every time combat starts, I can only use my fists. I tried mapping a button to the “wield”command, but that didn’t seem to do anything either. Spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure that out and still came up empty.

Do I need to have Steam and/or the full game installed to run a dedicated server?

I ask because it might be fun to have one running for my wife and I to have our own sandbox to play in.

I figure it might be a good way for us to spend more time together. I can be in my office in the basement playing and she can be in her office three floors above me playing. We'll use the house intercom system to communicate.

- Can’t for the life of me figure out how to equip and use a weapon. I crafted a sword and it shows up in that radial menu, but when I try to select it...nothing. Every time combat starts, I can only use my fists. I tried mapping a button to the “wield”command, but that didn’t seem to do anything either. Spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure that out and still came up empty.

Unplug the controller.

I’m using the controller. Read multiple guides that recommended controller over kb/m for combat.

Weird thing is, everything else mapped to the radial menu works fine. I can use a bedroll and eat bugs just fine, but selecting a weapon does nothing. And I can’t map the “wield” command to a controller button without overriding something else that seems critical.

There’s probably something basic I’m missing, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what it is.

Edit: in doing some research this morning, this looks to be a known issue with fixes ranging everywhere from completely restarting a new character, to putting all items in a box and picking them up again, to hitting backspace a couple times, to using specific emotes and trying it again. Will give a few of these “fixes” a shot later today.

That seems like a pretty major bug in a combat oriented game like this.

Part of humble bundle's monthly bundle for August so I guess I'll be firing it up when it unlocks. Hopefully you all won't have moved on by then.

So, just spitballing here, how big should my genitalia be? Huge? Or Hugest?

If you are a subscriber you can unlock it and start playing now.

If you turn nudity off the genitalia slider goes away so you don't have to choose.

I am, but it was not available for some reason. I pay in 3 month installments, so it's possible that July was the last of 3, and my new payment for the next 3 hadn't been taken yet. I've seen this happen one other time, although I didn't give it any thought.

I *did* poke around and it wasn't available yet. I'll double check today, plus look at my CC transaction list to see if there is any information there.

I was hoping for transgender genitalia, so I could be the biggest huge double genitalia on the server.

Yep, I'm getting screwed by the auto-3 month subscription. It looks like it goes through 3-5 days before the new month (instead of an entire month before, like it should, to maximize early access unlock time), so every 3 months I lose out on almost a month of early access unlocks. In fact if I look at the way Humble Bundle is reporting the purchases (each monthly bundle shows up as its own line item with a date) I might be getting screwed out of about 2-3 weeks of early access, EVERY month.

It has been months since I've actually tried to download and play an early access unlock, so I don't know if this is true or not. On paper it *appears* to be true.

Long story short I don't expect the 3 month charge to appear on my credit card for another 2 weeks AT LEAST, and until that happens, no Exiles for me.

Of course I could call and get them to charge it manually, but I've got enough gaming going on right now that I am not motivated to go through the hassle.

Part of humble bundle's monthly bundle for August so I guess I'll be firing it up when it unlocks. Hopefully you all won't have moved on by then.

So, just spitballing here, how big should my genitalia be? Huge? Or Hugest?

If you are a subscriber you can unlock it and start playing now.

If you turn nudity off the genitalia slider goes away so you don't have to choose.

I am, but it was not available for some reason. I pay in 3 month installments, so it's possible that July was the last of 3, and my new payment for the next 3 hadn't been taken yet. I've seen this happen one other time, although I didn't give it any thought.

I *did* poke around and it wasn't available yet. I'll double check today, plus look at my CC transaction list to see if there is any information there.

I was hoping for transgender genitalia, so I could be the biggest huge double genitalia on the server.

I believe hermaphrodite is the term you seek.

I don't remember where I read this, Cort, maybe it was in the last patch notes, but they said the UAZ really handles the best when... the wheels are actually touching the ground.
--RedF1ve